Could this be a tardigrade. I have three photos so you can see the whiskers, his body outline, and the legs. There were three of them in the one sample but this one was in the best shape. (He has clearly seen better days.) I got the sample from an apple tree flower bud that I sliced into last week (in order to look to identify apple powdery mildew spores - Podosphaera leucotricha). 400X total.
Thank you.
rooth

certainly not a tardigrade. Please describe the manner of this organisms movement..quick and repeated 'spurts of rapid forward motion'...or continuous forward motion? So many insect stages resemble this organism..how did it move?

Due the anterior 'antenae'...possibly a 'water flea'..but you need inform us how active this specimen was/ describe the manner of it's movements...BTW..was it still 'living' when you imaged captured it?

This gut was not moving at all. I am afraid I did not give him much chance. I was looking for certain spores and dissected a piece of flower bud from a fruit tree and made an infusion. I am sure he was dead as a door nail. I will do another dissection to see if I find another.
You are on to something however. I think it's a better chance that it's some microfauna. What should and could more likely be in that bud is stuff like aphid eggs and larvae and tiny true bugs, etc.
Thank you
rooth

I agree with Charlie … not a tardigrade. Could be an appleleaf blister mite. Females overwinter under bud scales. I could not find a good image of an identified appleleaf blister mite, but they are shaped like your critter and are quite small.